A 20th Century Fox Picture, Written and Directed by George Lucas.
This is the film we were always hoping for from the prequel trilogy, and it took until the final entry to deliver it. We got the rise of Vader, the battle between the Jedi and the Sith, and a darker and more grown up movie.
One of the stand out aspects of this film are the lightsaber battles. There are multiple throughout, and all have their own special moments, but it is the final duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan that stands out the most. It is visually stunning, packed full of huge consequence, and the fight choreography is superb (and sold well by the two actors).
Speaking of the actors, this is Ewan McGregor’s shining performance in the franchise. The charisma and depth he brings to Obi-Wan results in one of best performances in Star Wars saga history.
Natalie Portman is relegated to an even smaller role here and it is almost entirely thankless, although she does deliver one of the franchise’s best and most chilling lines “So this is how Liberty dies, with thunderous applause”.
Ian McDiarmid is completely over the top and totally fantastic as the evil Palpatine. Hayden Christensen is better here than he was in Episode II but Anakin is simply a role that I think a great actor would’ve struggled with (Leo DiCaprio was offered the part) and unfortunately Christensen certainly isn’t a great actor.
This is still far from a perfect film, as it features much of the same cheesy dialogue and forced character motivation that plagued the earlier films. But what it is, is a riveting end to an imperfect trilogy.
Rating = 3.5/5
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